'This is all we had': Flooded-out residents try to salvage what they can in Peguis First Nation
CBC
To get to her house, Peguis First Nation resident Jessica Sutherland needs to board a tank-like vehicle that can wade through the rising flood waters.
On Friday, she returned to her house for the first time in six days to save what she could.
As the vehicle approached the house, the water became so deep that the wheels were no longer touching the ground, and it began to float, as it's designed to do.
Sutherland's grandparents built the house, and she lives there with her mother and six-year-old daughter. The house is now destroyed.
"We have no home to come back to. This is all we had," Sutherland said through tears.
Sloshing through the water, she gathered what she could: ribbon skirts, photos of her daughter's late father, and as many essentials as would fit in the plastic bins.
Sutherland has experienced flooding before, but not like this. In the living room, one of her couches is floating.
"It's normal here for us to flood, but we're usually able to save our home," she said.
About 200 homes in Peguis look like Sutherland's: completely unlivable, and unsalvageable.
Before leaving the home that she loves, Sutherland took a few pictures, unsure of what she'll come back to.
Angie Flett is frantically trying to save her 86-year-old auntie's house, before it becomes unsalvageable like Sutherland's.
Volunteers piled sandbags in front of the elder's home on Peguis First Nation, in Manitoba's Interlake region, on Friday — even though the floodwaters were already lapping against the home's foundation.
"She woke up Sunday morning, she said she was surrounded by a lake," said Flett. Her aunt's home is across the highway from the Fisher River, which burst its banks last weekend.
Her aunt left the community that day, but by the time Flett made it there on Monday, the road leading to the house was covered.